Persona

Today, Atlus Celebrates Its Birthday

Famed role-playing game maker Atlus is celebrating a milestone. Today in 1986, the company was founded. Happy birthday Atlus! In its early years, Atlus sold karaoke equipment, before releasing its first game Puzzle Boy for the Game Boy in 1989. The company’s first arcade game, BlaZeon, followed three years later. During the 1990s, Atlus caused…

“We Just Despise The Police”: Persona 5 Strikers Is OK

If you’ve played Persona 5 you’ll know that, aside from a few notable exceptions, Tokyo’s cops are kid-torturing assholes. So it’s little wonder that in the game’s kinda-sequel, the Phantom Thieves have no time for them. By virtue of the original game’s youthful, rebellious themes, the police are framed throughout Persona 5 as authoritative villains,…

Thank You, Persona 5 Strikers, For This Adult Who Doesn’t Suck

Persona 5 Strikers has been out for a little more than a week, so I feel pretty comfortable saying this: Thank God for Wolf! Wolf (née Zenkichi Hasegawa) is the newest and only adult member of the Phantom Thieves. There are adults who help the Phantom Thieves and keep their secret, but until Strikers, there’s…

How Persona 5 Strikers Did (And Didn’t) Steal Our Hearts

At long last, the Phantom Thieves ride again as Persona 5 Strikers—the Atlus RPG turned Koei Tecmo hack and slash—is out in North America. I’m a big Persona 5 nerd and I’ve been anxiously waiting for fellow nerd Luke Plunkett to get far enough into the game that I could finally have someone with whom…

Persona 5 Strikers’ Menus Are As Vibrantly Alive As Its Cast

Video game menus are like assholes—every game has them and more often than not, they stink. They are often the least-pretty, least splashy part of an otherwise beautiful game, partly because they aren’t central to gameplay (unless it’s Crusader Kings or something). But Persona 5 Strikers shows us a world in which menus do not…

iam8bit’s Persona 5 Royal Vinyl Soundtrack Looks Pretty Sweet

Pre-orders for iam8bit’s three-LP vinyl soundtrack to Persona 5 Royal opened back in December, with fans dropping $75 on it without knowing what the album art or actual records look like. We’ve got an exclusive first look at the package, and, luckily for them, it’s a thing of beauty. The perfect companion to the unfortunately…

Various Persona Soundtracks Now Available On Spotify, Apple Music

The video game discographies of Spotify and Apple Music got significantly better outside of Japan today with the addition of soundtracks from the Persona series. These soundtracks include tunes from Persona 2, Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5, as well as music from spin-off games like Persona Q and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. There…

Persona 5 Strikers Comes West On February 23, With A Surprise PC Port

According to an unlisted video on Atlus’ YouTube channel, since pulled, the Dynasty Warriors-style sequel to Persona 5 is finally coming to North America and Europe on February 23, including a release on Steam for PC, along with PS4 and Switch. That’ll wake you up, get you up, and get you out there. Released in…

Here Are Some Great Video Game Victory Fanfares For No Reason At All

With the world in crisis, just straight-up, feel-good moments are few and far between. So some of us here at Kotaku, for no other reason at all, much less one dominating the current news cycle, have grabbed a bunch of our favorite fanfares from a bunch of our favorite video games to help you close…

Persona 5’s Anime Is Finally Getting A $300 English Dub

While Persona 5’s anime has been out for over two years now, it’s only been available to watch with subtitles. The show’s upcoming Blu-ray release in the West is changing that, bringing back most of the game’s English-language cast for a dubbed release that…is going to cost you. I’m not really down on the pricing…

Fans Are Digitizing And Translating A Persona Trading Card Game From The Late ’90s

Dedicated fans are digitizing an entire Persona card game that was released back in the late ‘90s in Japan and was never released in the West. They’ve already scanned over a thousand cards and all the rule books. As spotted by VG 24/7, weaK_willO over on the ResetEra forums posted that they had bought up…

Some copies of Persona 5 in Japan came with an official recipe card so you could recreate Sojiro’s famous Leblanc curry yourself. So here’s someone doing just that (you can also check out the recipe in full here). And if you’d rather try something a bit less apple in it, you could always try Chris’…

Persona 4 Golden PC Is The Definitive Edition Of A Damn Good Game

Trapped on a dead Sony handheld no longer: The ultimate version of Persona 4, the once Vita-exclusive Persona 4 Golden, launched today for PC via Steam I’ve been playing it for a couple weeks now, and I have no new complaints. Old complaints, sure. The fourth game in the storied series, originally released in 2008…

Persona 4 Golden Just Launched On Steam

Persona 4 Golden, the formerly Vita-exclusive enhanced version of Atlus’ classic role-playing game, launched today on Steam. It is available in a standard $20 version or a $25 “digital deluxe” edition that includes an art book and soundtrack. It allows you to choose between English and Japanese voiceover.

Persona 2 Guide, Written In 2011, Gets One Hell Of An Update

In October 2011, GameFAQs user ThatGuy4913 decided to upload a guide to playing Persona 2. In May 2020, ThatGuy4913—who says they have now “learned to love Jesus”—has some additional thoughts on the game, because “Contrary to popular belief, dying is NOT cool”. The update was first spotted by freelance writer Graham Sigurdson, who only this…

Tokyo Mirage Sessions Is Great On Switch

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore arrives on the Nintendo Switch on January 17, bringing the excellent Wii U role-playing game hardly anyone played to a much larger audience. While the Shin Megami Tensei/Fire Emblem crossover has more than enough style and charm to stand on its own, Atlus added a bit more story and a…

Our Best (And Worst) Memories Of The PlayStation, 25 Years Later

On this day 25 years ago, the Sony PlayStation released in Japan. A lot of us here at Kotaku have pretty fond memories of the PlayStation, from bartering for access with our siblings to sitting in dark, dusty basements, illuminated only by the light of an old TV and some sharp, sharp polygons. Take a…

It’s A Good Day For Persona Art Lovers

The work of Shigenori Soejima, the Japanese video game artist responsible for most of the characters in the Persona series, makes me happy. His characters are so bursting with personality and life I can’t help wanting to get to know them. Every page of Udon Publishing’s newly released English version of Shigenori Soejima & P-Studio…

Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers now has a Japanese release date and a brand new trailer. The musou take on Persona drops in Japan on February 20, 2020, for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It also looks slick as heck, as you might expect from a Persona 5 spin-off.

Morgana Won’t Be Such A Bedtime Dictator In Persona 5 Royal

During a recent Q&A session on Twitter, a Japanese fan had the sense to ask Atlus about one of the most pressing concerns surrounding the upcoming Persona 5 Royal: will Morgana continue to force you, a nearly grown-ass man, to go to bed against your wishes? Thankfully, the answer is “not as often”. Being made…